


Command Quality

by jenna_thorn



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Truth Serum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-22
Updated: 2013-05-22
Packaged: 2017-12-12 16:00:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/813389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenna_thorn/pseuds/jenna_thorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Truth serum + agents of a shadowy agency = oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Command Quality

Fury strode into the room, combat boots and flapping coat making him look like a black hole in the white sterility of the med bay. “Talk to me, Dr. Webster.”

“Quarantine protocol showed no hazard, sir, past initial exposure. We were filtering through a compound of –“

“Not my concern, doctor; I expect you to know what you’re doing. My concern is my people. Do we know yet what he hit them with?”

“No, sir. It may have been inert. Banner’s still unconscious. It doesn’t seem to have affected Rogers at all, but Romanov’s lost English.”

“Come again?”

“Mazlowsky knows enough Russian to get by, so she’s not speaking that, but well, I’m not a linguist. She’s cooperative and can communicate non-verbally, but she’s not speaking a language we can understand.”

“Barton?”

Plausible deniability, Webster told himself. He could do this. “Was… he … exposed?”

Fury moved his hands to his hips and looked down at his boots for a moment and Webster wondered if the rumors of the Men in Black memory eraser gadget were true or if just killing him would be more expedient. Fury said, in a conversational tone, “Have you ever wondered, doctor, why you’re not in command of this department?” He stepped to the desk and stepped up onto Webster’s chair, then to the surface of the desk, disarraying files and nudging the tablet nearly off the side. “You’ve got seniority; you have to know that.” Webster did know that, just as he knew that reaching for the tablet would be a sign of weakness. He reached for it anyway.

“Because Dr. Harker would have chased down Barton?” He hugged the tablet and looked around the medbay. All three nurses ignored the fuss with aplomb.

Fury slapped the ceiling, his open palm leaving a divot on the acoustic tile. “Harker isn’t scared of Barton.”

Barton’s voice came through, only a little muffled by the ceiling. “Yeah, but everyone’s scared of you, boss.”

“Is there a reason you aren’t with your team?”

“Yes, boss.”

Fury waited. Webster waited. The nurses continued ignoring them.

“Would you care to share that information?”

“No, boss.”

Fury tilted his head, as though straining to catch a far off sound. “And what would that reason be?”

“I’ve been lying to the shrinks, so I’m avoiding them now.”

“Your attitude toward our counselors is not unknown to me, Agent,” Fury said, and Webster thought he heard Barton shifting, or possibly a sigh, from above. “Nor to your partner and despite his unfortunate hairstyle, Captain Rogers didn’t fall off the turnip truck any time recently. What I am having trouble with, and perhaps you can assist, is why you are …” He folded his arms across his chest and tapped his lip with one finger, then faced the ceiling again. “Agent Barton, I am thinking of a young man too stupid to come in out of the rain, even when he’s bleeding and wearing a woman’s coat. What city am I thinking of?”

That wasn’t a sigh. That was a choked off and shaky laugh. “Sandusky, Ohio, and I liked that coat.”

“It was a raggedy ass coat. What precautions have you taken?”

“Chem shower, biobagged my suit. Equipment’s in the pit awaiting inspection and dispo.”

Fury nodded, then looked down on Webster. “Doctor, get him a set of scrubs and a bottle of water.” Webster nodded and scrambled to obey as Nurse Harris crossed the room with a set of greens folded in his hands. Behind him, Fury hopped off the desk, his coat flapping behind him like infernal wings. He walked to the screened off beds where Rogers and Romanov sat. She was crosslegged on the rolling bed, while he lay back, his forearm across his eyes.

“Agent Romanov, are you …” he stopped as she looked up, her face devoid of all emotion. “Never mind. You sit down and shut up. Captain Rogers, would you like something to eat?”

“Yes, please,” Rogers said, and then pressed his lips together so hard that they went white-grey around the edges.

Webster looked at the banana curled around the apple in the center of the tray on the metal table between the beds. “I don’t understand.”

“And that, Dr. Webster, is why Harker’s in charge. Who’s got the highest clearance in this room?”

Webster blinked in confusion and Harris, from where he stood on the desk poking a bottle of water through a missing chunk of acoustic tile, said, “I’m five, sir, and I’m pretty sure I’m highest.”

“You’ll do until I can get someone in here.” Fury’s hand dropped to his thigh and Webster shied away. Harris dropped to the ground and took the weapon Fury handed him, checking the chamber and safety with practiced hands. “Anyone tries to ask any of them a question, you shoot.”

“Wound or kill, sir?”

“I leave that to your discretion.”

Harris walked past him, the black of the gun imposing against the pale green of his scrubs as he leaned against the wall, his face to the rest of the room and his back to where both agents sat. Webster knew he was gaping. “Truth serum, doctor. With a compulsion.” He pointed at the ceiling and said, “That answer is classified,” then to where Rogers sat, his head in his hands, “and I should apologize to the Captain for confirming my suspicions at his time of weakness, but I’ll settle for increasing the catering and guilt tripping him into eating it in the future.”

Rogers looked up, either embarrassed or angry, as he caught the apple that Romanov threw at him. Fury eyed the ceiling as he said, “Rogers, eat the damn apple. Barton, get your ass into this room. That is not a question; that is an order. Your only possible response is ‘sir, yes sir’.”

“You got it, boss.” Barton said, and Webster could hear the slightest of laughs from Rogers as Fury left the room.

**Author's Note:**

> From a comment that James made: "...I would hit Geno with {truth serum}, but he would cheat by speaking Russian … ."


End file.
